Course Details
These are course details. Please feel free to add and try to be frank on this page. No traditions or silly stuff, there are other pages for things like that, Archaeology A Ireland possesses a remarkably rich and varied array of archaeological remains from its prehistoric past. That's basically what you will be studying, with lots of slides and humourous commentary from the brilliant and charismatic Vinny. This course will chart and examine in detail the fascinating sequence of prehistoric peoples who inhabited Ireland from circa 8,000 BC up to the arrival and establishment of Early Christianity in the 5th Century AD. Vinny explores really interesting areas of ancillary topics like human and animal bone analysis, environmental archaeology, bog bodies, the archaeology of peatlands, shell middens, prehistoric flint mining and threats to heritage. This is a fairly nitty gritty course also and includes great field trips and proper hands on dealings of genuine archaeological artefacts and environmental remains like human and animal bones. Archaeology B The course is really cool and examines the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic peoples of Europe’s prehistory. You'll get to learn about their tools and weapons, burials, art, habitations, hunting strategies, butchering techniques and trade. Prehistoric cave art, ice mummies, osteoarchaeology, shell middens, environmental archaeology and European bog bodies will also be covered in this course and I'd really recommend this with anyone with a keen interest in archaeology or a morbid curiousity towards death and perservation! Both of these courses are fantastic! Architecture Although this course is no longer available, it must still be stressed not to do it unless one has a huge amount of interest in art and/or architecture. A lot of drawing, sketching, model making and designing was part of this course and not a lot of structural engineering as one may presume. The class goes on a few tours to see some remarkably designed buildings (such as the casino at marino) or to see a museum exhibition on an architect. It is fortunate that the Helix is located on DCU campus as the students visit that too. The students get to work with cardboard, knives and glue a lot for making their models too, something that may delight some students. They watch Barney and the Tweenies in order to gain creative skills. Biomedical Diagnostics This course is taught by Aoife, and is pretty damn amazing! It's a very good course, even if you don't have that much of an interest in medicine and medical technology. It's a good idea to know a bit about DNA and RNA, but you don't have to. Films that are related to Biomed in some way are shown (usually Jurassic Park and The Fantastic Voyage). The homework is easy enough if you know how to research scientific stuff properly but you are taught how to do that anyway. Field trips include the Botanical Gardens and just for 2008, The Science Gallery in Trinity College. Projects include a Powerpoint display and Poster Making. Subjects covered include biosensors, immunology, toxicology, fluorescence, proteins, DNA, RNA, genetics, microbiology, diabetes and nanotechnology. Labwork also makes up a significant part of the course. Computer Applications This course covers the basics of the Java language. It would be useful to know a bit of HTML, but you wouldn't be at a disadvantage without it. Being comfortable with computers is a necissity. There is a project at the end of the course. Nearly all of the homework is practical. * In the first week nearly all of the classtime is spent in the lecture room, where the basics of HTML and Java are taught. Study is spent doing homework in the computer labs, putting what was learnt earlier in the day to use. * In the second week the projects are started, and some classtime is spent in the labs. * In the third week there are some lectures on vaguely computing-related topics in the lecture room; otherwise all time is spent in the labs working on the projects. At the end everyone shows their project to the class. Corporate Business Corporate Business has been taught for the last few years by Darryl, who works at Deloitte and Touche. He is an excellent and personable teacher and brings humour to all his material, even and especially the dryer areas of study. Aside from providing students with endless punning possibilities, Deloitte and Touche also sponsor the course. As the name suggests, the course touches on all aspects of Corporate Business, everything from Humn Resources the the future value of money gets a mention. A 400-500 page course book is provided, but not all covered. More diligent students may find, when leafing through, the theme songs of some large US firms. This is an excellent course for anyone with a passing interest in business. As the rmit is so broad, even if you particularly dislike one area you won't be forced to spend too much time on it. The flip-side is however that you will rarely delve too deeply into any one area. From this course you will gain a deeper understanding of many areas of the business world and it will certainly help you decide whether you would enjoy studying Business later in life. Drama Drama is basically a course covering every aspect of the theatre, from acting, scripts, direction, stage management, stage construction and history. Previously taught by Brona, and afterwards Donna, Drama is perhaps one of the most popular courses of CTYI, following Philosophy, Psychology and Spec Fic. Whether you are a beginner or have acted in one man plays in the Gaeity, Drama caters to everyone and enables you to expand your skills and build your confidence in a fun and pleasant environment with creative people who are eager to learn new things. This course is ideal for anyone who wants to be involved in drama, getting your creative juices flowing whilst legally being able to rip off many famous Trilogies at the end of the Session. I would definately recommend this course for anyone with the slightest inkling towards improv and script writing. Gothic Studies Gothic Studies is the stuff. Full of Nevermores(*sob) and people who wear dark colours(save one person). Pure class. The course was introduced Session 2 2008 and was very popular though two people transferred out. They watched a few movies - Batman Begins (with Superhero Science) and Dracula being among the few, but Nosferatu and Clue will remain close to everyone who was in the class. The 2009 course was somewhat different films included in the course were edward scissorhands, the burbs, rear window, murder by death all very good. But unfortunately there were only 12 students in this class, so c'mon people, its great! Globalisation Introduced in 2007 and returning in 2008 this is a class about companies going global and who profits from the changing economy. Gemma (the teacher) is excellent although she talks extremely fast and for all you Americans it might be a bit hard to understand her accent. The course is heavy on the economic side of globalisation but was still interesting. Lots of slides. And you get to create your own utopia. All in all a great course, I definately recomend it. International Relations or Government and Society This course involves a lot of debating, negotiating, project work, research and is without a doubt one of the most hands-on courses. Instructor Peter Lydon is a very astute in his chairing of MUN debates. Like conspiracy theories? Lydon's your man. There is one written project and two written assignments over the three week course. The course demands a lot of reading and analysis. Most of the activities are very enjoyable (MUN and Negotiations in particular) plus at the start of class every day the class reads the papers and discusses current affairs. This course is for someone with a very keen interest in politics and is great for developing public speaking skills, diplomacy and getting up to date with current affairs. The course is not intended to be a 'holiday camp' but a serious academic exercise, but with a lot of fun thrown in. One point of warning: while it is difficult to take a proactive and get stuck into debate, especially for younger students, the rewards are worth it. However, if you don't try to 'swim' early on in the course, you won;t get as much out of it and in fact could end up 'drowning' in it. Japanese This course, back again in 2009, covers a fair amount. It covers the alphabets of Hiragana and Katakana. Joss also made lots of slideshows to show the class about Japanese Culture such as Ninja, Geisha and Hikikomori. A lot of the course is project work or watching animé which gives one a chance to relax. We also watched documentaries on Sumo wrestlers' haridressers and the art of Wabi Sabi etc. However the grammar is difficult and if you have problems reading the lettering and such, the rest of the course will be quite challenging as most of the writing is in Hiragana. Journalism A three week look at the media, the course covers article writing, interview technique, media influence and its effects. Some excellent documentaries and movies are watched and studied, with the students of S2 09 noticing a strange commodity in EACH AND EVERY ONE: RICHARD NIXON!!! Also haha Bill O'Reily. The class also produces a newspaper during the course with news, reviews and features included. A lively class, Andrew(who is the shizzle!!) always makes things interesting especially the analysis of news channels, magazines and papers such as Cosmo, Mizz, Now,(yes he did get odd looks in Spar), Fox News, Sky News, RTE, the Irish Times and the Star. Philosophy Philosophy is possibly the most fundamental of subjects as it asks the question 'What does it mean to be?' The aim of this course is to enable students to acquire the basic skills of philosophy i.e. analytic argument and essay writing. The course will cover some of the fundamental concerns of philosophy such as: * The History of Philosophy * Metaphysics, Science and Technology * Eastern Philosophy and the Philosophy of Religion * Ethics, Morality and Political Theory * Critical Theory and the Philosophy of Literature Fiachra is something of a CTYI icon as far as lecturers go, and the course is quite interesting. Plenty of debate and discussion and a little bit of essay writing, but not so strenuous as some coursework in other classes. It'll really enhance your enjoyment of the class if you can be open to new ideas and think laterally. Psychology The psychology course in CTYI is basically an introduction to 'General' Psychology which will examine the main ideas of present-day psychology. The course will cover both theoretical psychology (ideas of Intelligence, Memory, Emotion, Perception+Sensation, Behaviour etc) and more practical areas such as Body Language and Non-Verbal Communication which I think is essential in 'real life'. What I found really great about the course is the fact that each student is part of a team which have to decide on a project and each member of that team gains experience in research, design and, on occassion, reasoning (*cough*). For anyone considering doing this course due to an interest in Freud or more psychiatric psychology I will warn you that this is not like 'Criminal Minds' meets 'Doctor Phil', this is not pop or pseudo psychology, you will not be doing an intensive course on analyzing others (though that is covered) and learning how to mentally manipulate, this is merely an introduction to psychology (but it's still a stonking great course!) Hope that helps! Squee. Superhero Science First appeared in session 2 2008. Involves advanced physics as quantum mechanics and special relativity and biology and AI but these subjects are excellently explained and broken down so that all students can understand them, may seem boring but trust me it ain't. Emily teacher also shows the class dvds to demonstrate subjects as justice league unlimited to show an example of AI, Braniac. Overall this is a fun but involved class, with many extra activities and exercises including a project on making your own superhero- with a back story, semi-plausible powers and enemies, a superhero day- where all students of the class dress up as superheroes, and debates on almost completely unrelated topics, such as the existence of God... Would recommend to anyone, not just 'nerds'! Theoretical Physics This is a very challenging, difficult and quintessentially maths crazy course. Practically the whole Leaving Cert Applied Maths course is covered in one of two weeks with this course. Although the homework is light and class enjoyable, the maths itself is very challenging and one would have to be very confident in their mathematical ability if they chose to embark on this course. Projects are done on a huge number of different topics, ranging from super-novas to laser-coolers to the origins and fate of the universe. Many complex mathematical problems are explained to the class, as well as many hypotheses about the universe. The instructor is a genius and really lovely, as are the TAs (usually). I recommend this course to anyone but warn to prepare for some level of bewilderment! Writing For Life An essential part of CTYI since 2001. This course covers a broad range of forms - short stories, screenplays and plays, various kinds of poetry - and is fairly laid-back, giving people the chance to write about whatever they're interested in. Assuming Yvonne is the lecturer, entertaining writing types may include: * Writing to music (frequently soundtracks, such as the likes of Bernard Herrmann PSYCHO! PSYCHO! PSYCHO! or the Amélie soundtrack) * Writing in the park - usually haikus or free verse, plus chances to write on top of the giant playground thingy * Writing in pairs (fairly self-explanatory) * Writing from images/video (images include random photographs that the lecturer may bring in, or perhaps the odd scary French film) Zoology Not a course since 2006 but it deserves a comeback in the future. Includes trips to the zoo, muffins, debates against Marine Biology, Glendalough and not forgetting the dippers. In 2006 the class created the following poem about their favourite bird: Dip, dip, dip, dippers, I want one for my tea, I haven't had one since Easter, and now its half past three!!!!